NASA Pioneer 10/11 space probe plaque - Large Version with detailed explanation

Description

CARL SAGAN'S PIONEER 10 / 11 PLAQUE
PIONEER 10 & 11
"A Message to the Stars"
We made these as a special order for a local Astronomy club. Limited stock left - reduced to clear !!!
Faithful replica of the plaque affixed to the Pioneer 10 & 11 space probes launched in 1972 & 73. The plaque was designed by Dr.Carl Sagan as a galactic "message in a bottle", which showed any inhabitants of other star systems who may come upon it when, from where and by what type of beings the craft had been launched.
The radiating lines represent the positions of 14 pulsars to indicate our sun as the home star of the launching civilisation.
The "I" symbols by the lines are binary numbers representing the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of lauch relative to that of the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "I" unity symbol.
The hydrogen atom is thus used as a universal clock, the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable others to determine the time elapsed since launch.
The hydrogen atom is also used as a yardstick for sizing the human figures. The hydrogen wavelength, approx 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height at 64 inches. The figures represent the kind of creatures (mankind) that created Pioneer.
The man's hand is raised in a gesture of goodwill. The two figures were deliberately not shown holding hands as this could be interpreted as one figure with two heads.
Across the bottom of the plaque are the planets, ranging outward from the sun, with the spacecraft's trajectory arcing away from the earth, passing Mars and Swinging by Jupiter.
The plaque overall size is 350mm x 250mm with the plaque itself at the original size of 9 x 6 1/2". The plaque is made of a thin gold engraved material, similar in appearance to the original. The large grey material which the plaque is made from is approx.3mm thick aluminium composite material which is strong and quite heavy.
Below the plaque  is the inscription:
A 152mm by 229mm (6in by 9in) gold anodized aluminium plate is fixed to the antenna support struts of the Pioneer Spacecraft. It carries an information rich message, devised by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, in the event that either of the spacecraft is detected and recovered in the remote future by advanced extra terrestrials. The message is intended to communicate the location of the human race, the appearance of an adult male and female of our species, and the approximate era when the probe was launched. A line drawing of a naked couple standing in front of the Pioneer probe is accompanied by an ingenious scheme for conveying distance, direction and time information about the spacecraft's origins.
At the far right, the bracketing bars show the height of the woman compared to the spacecraft. The figure at the top left represents a reverse in the direction of spin of the electron in the hydrogen atom. This transition puts out a characteristic radio wave 21cm long, so we are indicating that 21cm is our base length. The horizontal and vertical ticks to the right of the human figures are a representation of the number 8 in binary form. Therefore, the woman is 8 x 21cm = 168cm or about 5'5"tall. The human figures represent the type of creature that created pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of goodwill
The radial pattern will help other scientists locate our solar system in the galaxy. The solid bars indicate distance, with the horizontal bar denoting the distance from the sun to the galactic centre. The shorter bars represent directions and distances to various pulsars from our sun, and the ticks following them are the periods of pulsars in binary form. pulsars are known to be slowing down and if the rate of slowing is constant, an other world scientist should be able to roughly deduce the time pioneer was launched. Thus, we have placed ourselves approximately in both space and time. the drawing at the bottom of the plaque indicates our solar system. The ticks accompanying each planet are the relative distance in binary form of that planet to the sun. pioneer's trajectory is shown as starting from the third planet - earth